Pakistan to get US modern weapon systemsIslamabad, September 30Pakistan has claimed that the USA has agreed to supply modern weapon systems and modernise the country’s existing fleet of 20-year-old F-16 fighter planes to check the “military imbalance” between India and Pakistan.

Keep off valley, Bhutto tells non-KashmirisIslamabad, September 30Non-Kashmiri militant groups should stop their interference in the valley, former Pakistani Premier Benazir Bhutto has said while urging the USA to continue its efforts to prevent a possible war between India and Pakistan.

US Muslim leader held for links with LibyaWashington, September 30An influential Muslim leader in the USA, Abdurrahman Alamoudi, was arrested as part of a wide-ranging probe on terror funding, and charged with illegally accepting money from Libya for persuading Washington to lift sanctions against that nation.

USA planning immigration fee hikeWashington, September 30Immigration officials are planning to raise fees for applications for US citizenship and other services, hoping to offset the costs of increased security checks.
Mr Russ Knocke, Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman, said the agency had told immigration groups to anticipate a fee increase, but he said the final amount had not been decided.

UN envoy in Myanmar to see Suu KyiYangon, September 30UN special envoy Razali Ismail arrived in Myanmar today on a mission to persuade the military government to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and revive reconciliation talks with her.

A tourist build sandcastles on Chenang Beach in Malaysia's resort island of Langkawi during sunset,
on Tuesday. — Reuters

Heshu Yones (16) whose father Abdalla Yones was found guilty of killing at London's Old Bailey criminal court on Monday. Abdalla Yones, who killed his daughter because he believed she had become too Westernised, was sentenced to life after becoming the first person in Britain to admit an "honour killing". — Reuters

Islamabad, September 30
Pakistan has claimed that the USA has agreed to supply modern weapon systems and modernise the country’s existing fleet of 20-year-old F-16 fighter planes to check the “military imbalance” between India and Pakistan.

“The Pentagon has agreed to help suffice the country’s defence needs to effectively check the imbalance of power being created by India in the region,” Pakistan’s Defence Secretary Lieut-Gen Hamid Nawaz (retd) told reporters here.

“In addition to providing us modern equipment, the USA would also modernise and refurbish our existing fleet of F-16 aircraft”, he said.

However, some of the major items sought by Pakistan have to be approved by the US Congress, including matching systems to counter the Phalcon radar systems being acquired by India from Israel, he said.

He said Pakistan has handed over a list of modern equipment required by the three forces at the Pakistan-US Defence Coordination Group (DCG) meeting two weeks ago in Washington.

“They agreed to our list, except for two-three items, that need approval from the US Congress,” he said and hoped that the rest of the items on the list would also be agreed by the US Congress.

However, the joint statement issued after the DCG meeting did not list any major items to be supplied to Pakistan except supply of spares for 30 F-16s, acquired in 1980.

Terming the DCG meet as a “major breakthrough” in the defence acquisition sector, he said if Pakistan got the items the imbalance in the conventional arms sector in the region would be checked effectively.

Asked whether the list included a system to counter the Indian acquisition of Falcon airborne system of Israel, he said “yes - special care has been given to this aspect in the acquisition list”.

However, it would require congressional approval, he added.

Before going for the meeting, Pakistan has prepared a specific list of items to be purchased from $ 341 million of funds under foreign military sales and $ 1.5 billion of military part of the package announced by President George W. Bush during earlier visit of President Pervez Musharraf in April this year.

To a question whether the USA has agreed to permit Belgium to sell used US-made F-16s to Pakistan, he said the procedure for transactions had commenced and by the time the next review meeting of defence consultative group was held, Pakistan would know the actual progress.
— PTI

Islamabad, September 30
Non-Kashmiri militant groups should stop their interference in the valley, former Pakistani Premier Benazir Bhutto has said while urging the USA to continue its efforts to prevent a possible war between India and Pakistan.

Local media quoted Ms Bhutto as saying in Washington that she was opposed to non-Kashmiri militant groups taking part in militant activities in the valley.

She said the “United States should continue to work to prevent a war between India and Pakistan,” and appealed to all parties in Kashmir, including the Kashmiri militant groups and Indian Government, to stop violence.

Contrary to media reports, Ms Bhutto said she had no plans to meet Premier Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, who is on a visit to Washington for his first-ever meeting with US President George W. Bush.

“I don’t want it to cost him his job, considering who his boss is,” Ms Bhutto told reporters in lighter vein referring to President Pervez Musharraf.

On US-Pakistan relations, she said one clear goal of Washington was that there should be no war between India and Pakistan.

While the USA was working with General Musharraf’s regime in the war against global terrorism, it should not be forgotten that the democracy sanctions imposed on Pakistan after the 1999 coup had only been waived and not removed.

Ms Bhutto said Washington’s backing of General Musharraf’s government had invited a backlash in Pakistan. “Nobody was happy with it, be it the religious, the moderate or centrist liberal parties”.
— PTI

Washington, September 30
An influential Muslim leader in the USA, Abdurrahman Alamoudi, was arrested as part of a wide-ranging probe on terror funding, and charged with illegally accepting money from Libya for persuading Washington to lift sanctions against that nation.

Alamoudi, leader of the American Muslim Council, who was arrested on Sunday at the Dulles international airport as he entered the USA from Britain, also allegedly attempted to smuggle into Syria hundreds of thousands of dollars whose final destination was not known, US officials said.

Alamoudi, who is of Eritrean origin, met frequently with senior Clinton and Bush Administration officials and was the chief architect of the Pentagon’s Muslim chaplain programme, The Washington Post reported.

The US authorities said that the arrest on Sunday was an important step in the wide-ranging investigation of funding for terrorism in the country. It is a probe that centres on a cluster of foundations and businesses based in Herndon, Virginia, a Washington suburb.
— PTI

Washington, September 30
Immigration officials are planning to raise fees for applications for US citizenship and other services, hoping to offset the costs of increased security checks.

Mr Russ Knocke, Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman, said the agency had told immigration groups to anticipate a fee increase, but he said the final amount had not been decided.

Immigration advocates said the agency told them that an increase of around $ 15 in application fees would be announced in the first or second week of October and take effect about a month later.

A permanent resident currently pays $ 260, plus a $ 50 fingerprinting fee, to become a citizen. An immigrant over the age of 14 must pay $ 255 to apply for permanent residency or what is known as a green card, and the $ 50 fingerprinting fee. The increases will help cover additional costs for checking names and fingerprints against intelligence databases.

Meanwhile, the US State Department has agreed to cede much of its authority to issue visas to potential foreign visitors after a long battle with the Department of Homeland Security over decisions on who should be granted permission to visit the United States, officials said.
— AP, AFP

Yangon, September 30
UN special envoy Razali Ismail arrived in Myanmar today on a mission to persuade the military government to free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and revive reconciliation talks with her.

Mr Razali, a veteran Malaysian diplomat on his 11th visit to Myanmar, declined comment after arriving in Yangon just days after Ms Suu Kyi, 58, was allowed to return to her lakeside home to recuperate from a major surgery.

Ms Suu Kyi, detained at a secret location for more than three months before the operation, is still sealed off from friends and supporters by a tight security cordon. But diplomats expect Mr Razali will be allowed to see her during his three-day visit.

Mr Razali is also expected to meet Gen Than Shwe, the head of the ruling Military Council, and new Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, who unveiled a roadmap to democracy last month.

WASHINGTON: Myanmar officials stopped US diplomats from meeting Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s doctor over the weekend near the villa where she is under house arrest, the US State Department has said.

The State Department, which has repeatedly demanded Ms Suu Kyi’s freedom, also said yesterday that it had asked Myanmar’s military rulers for permission for US officials to meet the Nobel Peace Prize winner but had received no response.

The authorities have confined Ms Suu Kyi to her home for more than half of the past 14 years.
— Reuters

Washington, September 30
Iraqis involved in the drafting of the country’s new constitution say that meeting US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s goal of drafting the new Iraqi Constitution in six months is impossible.

A two-member committee of lawyers, scholars and religious figures that was set up by the Governing Council was supposed to propose a way to select delegates to a constitutional convention. However, it has not been able to agree on a preferred method because of differences over how to select the drafters and more profound disagreements over the role of Islamic law and the basic contours of a new political system, Washington Post reported.

“It is impossible to do it in six months as Mr Powell wants,” said Council member Dara Noureddine, the Council’s liaison wih the committee. “It is unreasonable. It takes more time than this — much more.”

The Iraqis, he told the Post, first need to decide how to select the drafters.

Then these people will have to be chosen. Once they gather to begin drafting the document, they will have to sort through a draft of contentious issues.
— PTI

BRIEFLY

JAPAN
FREEZES HAMAS ASSETS
TOKYO: The Japanese Government decided on Tuesday to freeze assets related to the radical Palestinian group, Hamas. “After reviewing information that our government has received and after studying similar steps taken by the USA, the European Union and Canada, we have decided to freeze Hamas-related assets,” said a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry.
— AFP

US
TROOP KILLED IN GUNBATTLE
BAGRAM AIR BASE: A US soldier was killed and two others wounded in a gunbattle which also left two militants dead in southeastern Afghanistan, a US military spokesman said on Tuesday. “One coalition service member succumbed to his injuries and two were wounded as a result of fighting on Monday near Shkin,” Col Rodney Davis said.
— AFP

11
MAOISTS KILLED IN NEPAL
KATHMANDU: At least 11 Maoists and five security personnel were killed in separate clashes between security forces and rebels in various parts of Nepal, defence ministry sources said on Tuesday.
— PTI